RNC crowd embraces Condi Rice

TAMPA, Fla. — In a Republican convention virtually devoid of foreign policy, the GOP looked to its recent past for inspiration, giving Condoleezza Rice a prime-time platform to lay out an impassioned vision for the U.S. role in the world.

Unlike many of the speakers who have taken the stage here over the past two nights, Rice steered clear of launching attacks on President Barack Obama, instead choosing to criticize the administration in less direct terms. In fact, Rice may have given one of the least partisan speeches of the day — she didn’t utter the word “Obama” once.

Rice, a popular figure who has taken on an active role supporting Republican candidates across the country, received three standing ovations from the partisan crowd.

Saying, “We cannot be reluctant to lead — and one cannot lead from behind,” Rice told delegates: “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand this reality — that our leadership abroad and our well-being at home are inextricably linked. They know what needs to be done.”

Rice also threw a veiled jab at Obama’s sometimes cool relationship with Israel, saying: “Our friends and allies must be able to trust us. From Israel to Poland to the Philippines to Colombia and across the world — they must know that we are reliable and consistent and determined.”

Rice, a professor at Stanford, has taken on a visible role at the Republican National Convention, hopscotching to delegation breakfasts and media interviews. On Tuesday evening, she sat next to Romney during his appearance in the convention hall.

And on Wednesday night, she received perhaps one of the warmest — and loudest — reactions from the audience so far.

Her increasingly high-profile role in the 2012 campaign has instigated speculation in some corners that Rice might be eyeing a future run for office or in serving in a Romney White House. But in a televised interview Wednesday, Rice said she had no plans to serve in a Cabinet position.

Rice mostly aimed to inspire in her convention speech, invoking her humble roots as an African-American girl growing up in the segregated South.

“The essence of America — that which really unites us — is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion — it is an idea — and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things,” she said. “That it doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going.”

But she also warned that America faced daunting challenges at home and abroad that threatened its supremacy.

“The American ideal is indeed endangered today,” she said. “There is no country — no, not even a rising China — that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we fail to accomplish the tasks before us here at home.”